Another HRT trial is stopped early
BMJ 2004; 328 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.328.7435.305-a (Published 05 February 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;328:305All rapid responses
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It is my hypothesis that low DHEA may be involved in triggering oncogenes (1994). DHEA reaches low levels in the elderly and cancer initiation is increased in old age. I suggest hormone replacement therapy may increase cancer initiation because HRT decreases DHEA. “The data also suggest that estrogen treatment (OCs and ERT/HRT) suppresses DHEA concentrations in premenopausal and PM [postmenopausal] females, and that DHEA declines with age in PM females regardless of estrogen treatment.” Metabolism. 2001; 50(4): 488-93.
Competing interests: None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Here in the land of Down Under we don't seem to hear you so well. Our experts continue to tell a different story. Women are told to listen to their own doctors, not to some "flawed" study from overseas. Xenoscientists are not to be believed. When my letter appeared in the Brisbane paper objecting to the very strong recommendation to women to not "jeopardise their health" by discontinuing the very medicine they needed most I ended up in a verbal ping pong with the head of the local cancer society. He called my warnings "unfortunate" and my comparison of the HRT rationale with the one that gave the world Thalidomide very " unscientific". It now appears that only one third of Australian women have decided (mostly against the wishes of their doctors) to stop HRT . This was helped by news reports that stated the truth about the false claims made in regard to heart disease and osteoporosis. Unfortunately, some of these women went from the frying pan into the fire by choosing soy products as a "natural" replacement for HRT. Incidentally, the above-mentioned warning to women to ignore overseas warnings about HRT came from the head of the breast cancer clinic of a top hospital.
Competing interests: None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Common Link Why HRT Increases Breast Cancer and Alzheimer's Disease: Reduced DHEA
The Common Link of HRT increases Breast Cancer and Alzheimer's disease: reduced DHEA
Copyright 2004, James Michael Howard, Fayetteville, Arkansas, U.S.A.
In 1985 I suggested low dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) may result in Alzheimer's disease in vulnerable individuals. In 1994, I suggested low DHEA may be involved in triggering cancer. Both of these have since received support. It was recently reported that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) increases breast cancer in some women. Today, February 11, 2004, I discovered that the FDA reported that HRT increases Alzheimer's disease in some women.
HRT is known to reduce DHEA. In older women, whose DHEA has already declined naturally, HRT reduces DHEA further. I suggest this is the common link by which HRT increases breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease. HRT reduces DHEA. (I invite you to read this in more detail" "How Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) May Cause Breast Cancer" at www.anthropogeny.com/research.html ).
Competing interests: None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests